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A sharp political conflict has erupted in Trinidad and Tobago over reported United States visa revocations, pitting former Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley against sitting Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar. Rowley has publicly alleged that the U.S. has revoked visas held by both himself and another former Prime Minister, Stuart Young, and he is pressing the current administration to answer for the actions that led to this outcome.

In a public Facebook post published over the weekend, Rowley issued a series of direct questions to Persad-Bissessar. He challenged the prime minister to publicly specify which of the officially listed U.S. visa violation grounds apply to himself and Young, noting that political figures aligned with Persad-Bissessar’s United National Congress (UNC) had previously written to the U.S. government formally requesting the visa cancellations.

Beyond his own case, Rowley raised additional questions about broader visa revocation activity. He called on the prime minister to reveal details about a prior visa cancellation involving a close personal associate of hers, which occurred before Persad-Bissessar’s administration took office. He also demanded transparency around how many additional Trinidad and Tobago citizens the current prime minister and her government have referred to U.S. authorities with recommendations for visa revocation.

Rowley further accused UNC leadership and their affiliated allies of weaponizing visa policy, claiming they have issued repeated threats to ordinary Trinidadian citizens warning that they could lose their U.S. travel privileges for political reasons. In his post, the former prime minister referenced an August 10, 2026 official statement from the U.S. Department of State, thanking U.S. authorities for publicly disclosing the official grounds for visa revocation to what he described as a traumatized local public.

That U.S. State Department release outlines that the U.S. government revokes visas for foreign nationals found to have violated visa terms, committed criminal acts, incited violence against U.S. citizens, defrauded U.S. residents, abused the U.S. immigration system, or threatened U.S. national security. It noted that during the Trump administration, the State Department revoked more than 175,000 visas of foreign nationals matching these criteria. Most revocations stemmed from confirmed criminal activity, with offenses including assault, drunk driving, theft, and drug offenses topping the list, followed by reckless driving, sexual assault, child abuse, fraud, embezzlement, and other serious crimes. The release emphasizes that U.S. visa access is a privilege, not an inherent right, and that ongoing continuous vetting is conducted to protect U.S. communities from individuals who may pose a risk.

When reached for comment by local outlet the Express immediately after Rowley’s post, Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar dismissed his allegations, simply stating that the U.S. State Department’s public release is self-explanatory. As of press time, repeated attempts to contact both Rowley and Young for additional comment have been unsuccessful.

This controversy builds on earlier disclosures from current Attorney General John Jeremie, who told Parliament in June that the U.S. government had revoked visas held by a number of members of what he described as the “1%” elite group in Trinidad and Tobago. Jeremie explained that he initially ignored a journalist’s question about the revoked visas, but later was approached in his parliamentary office by multiple local figures who confirmed their U.S. travel documents had been canceled. He noted that U.S. authorities maintain advanced intelligence gathering capabilities to support these decisions, and stressed that the Trinidad and Tobago government has no involvement in the U.S. government’s independent visa decisions.

Workers at Trinidad and Tobago’s Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) have ended industrial protest action after the country’s Public Utilities Minister Barry Padarath issued a formal guarantee that the current government would uphold all pre-election commitments made to employees represented by the Public Services Association (PSA).

The breakthrough came following a face-to-face meeting between Padarath, PSA president Felisha Thomas, and union leadership held at WASA’s St Joseph head office on Tuesday. The meeting was organized specifically to address long-stalled wage negotiation rounds covering the 2014–2016 and 2017–2019 periods, alongside long-running grievances over internal HR processes that had delayed progress on the claims.

Images of the minister walking hand-in-hand with Thomas into the WASA compound signaled a new spirit of cooperation between the government, the union, and the utility provider. Speaking to assembled workers after the meeting concluded, Thomas confirmed that the minister had met all core demands put forward by the union to break the negotiation deadlock. Under the agreement struck, WASA’s HR leadership will review the union’s formal proposals this week, with full documentation of the proposals set to be submitted to the Ministry of Public Utilities by Friday.

Padarath also committed to convening a follow-up meeting between the PSA, himself, and Finance Minister Davendranath Tancoo to move toward a final settlement. Addressing the gathered workers, Padarath emphasized the current administration has not broken any pre-election agreements made with public sector workers, noting that stalled negotiations stemmed from procedural bottlenecks rather than a lack of commitment.

“A breakdown in communication is always a recipe for industrial disaster,” Padarath told the crowd, explaining his intervention to speed up the process. To cut through internal red tape, the minister appointed WASA’s acting chief executive Dain Maharaj to serve as a dedicated intermediary between the union and the utility’s HR department, ordering Maharaj to ensure all required paperwork reaches the ministry by the end of the week.

Padarath acknowledged the validity of Thomas’ concerns over inefficient internal HR management at WASA, and committed to reviewing those systemic issues with the utility’s board chair and executive leadership. He clarified that as a cabinet minister he cannot directly intervene in HR operational matters, but pledged that the ministry would provide regular updates to the PSA executive as the review and negotiation processes move forward.

In his remarks, Padarath also struck a note of caution, acknowledging that the current government has inherited significant fiscal and operational challenges from the previous administration. He warned that a failure to resolve outstanding issues through dialogue could put WASA jobs at risk if administrative structures are destabilized. To address the fiscal constraints, he noted the government has pursued strategic local and international partnership investments to strengthen public finances and allow the state to meet its commitments to workers.

Reiterating the administration’s commitment to a collaborative resolution, Padarath called on both the union and WASA management to maintain open lines of communication moving forward to prevent future disruptions to service and industrial relations.